The present invention is concerned with speaker equipment, particularly equipment comprising a speaker of the well known cone type, and the invention is especially concerned with certain mounting, enclosing and sound reflecting devices for such speakers.
In my prior application above identified, the speaker itself is mounted in an enclosure having a chamber of relatively small total volume and which is also characterized by the provision of intercommunicating front and rear chamber compartments, the front compartment having a panel with an opening through which the speaker is exposed, which front compartment is of relatively large volume, as compared with the rear compartment. The enclosure walls of a speaker according to said prior application are formed of relatively thin sheet material, for instance plywood of the order of 1/8" in thickness, and the speaker enclosure is substantially imperforate except for the opening where the speaker is exposed. In speakers of this type, the enclosure walls themselves are excited and experience consequent sound generating vibrations under the influence of the speaker, at least at frequencies in the lower portion of the audio range.
As will further appear, in the preferred embodiment of the speaker enclosure, the forward or larger compartment of the speaker enclosure is substantially rectangular and is characterized by a dimension in the direction of the axis of the speaker which is relatively small; and the rear or smaller compartment is characterized by being configured as a relatively thin "tail" projecting rearwardly from the forward compartment. By the employment of speaker compartments as just described, tendency for development of resonant points within the enclosure is greatly diminished, so that the sound generation is relatively uniform over a broad frequency range, notwithstanding the fact that the total internal volume of the speaker enclosure is relatively small.
The principal object of the present invention is to further improve the operation of speaker equipment of the kind in which the walls of the enclosure participate in the sound generation, and especially speaker equipment embodying speaker enclosures such as referred to above and more fully described in my prior application above identified. More specifically, the present invention contemplates the provision of means for increasing the effectiveness and direction of propagation of the sound generated by the excitation and vibration of the walls of thin walled speaker enclosure.
This is accomplished in accordance with the present invention by the employment of a reflector or enclosing hood or horn for the speaker enclosure, the reflector having an opening at the front in which the speaker enclosure is received, the reflector being dimensioned in relation to the speaker enclosure so as to provide a forwardly opened passage preferably at all sides of the speaker enclosure. This reflector directs the sound generated by the walls of the speaker enclosure in the forward direction and thus into the normal listening area.